Russia Invades Ukraine

[John Thomas8]

[Suranis]

A video on the "Turtle Tanks" that the Russians have started using in Ukraine to defend against Drones and such. It apparently a normal tank underneath the shell.

[RTH10260]

Highly limits where the tank can fire upon. Early extra shells seem to have been manufactured in the field (reminds me of the US army bolting steel plates to the open humvees in the field in the early days of war in Iraq and Afghanistan. Many of these are used with the mine sweeper attachment they push in front of them as the leading vehicle of a convoy. The latest videos I got to see is that Ukranians have learned how to fly drones under the shell when attacking from the back where the tanks are vulnerable. Though I have also seen the shell with the rear also totally closed. I understand that in this case there needs to be two drone attacks, one to blow open the extra protection, the next to get to the tank itself.

[RTH10260]

other prior videos, same source

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[John Thomas8]

"Let's put a huge kettle drum of dubious value on a tank of even more dubious value and restrict the field of view and arc of fire" said nobody sane ever.

[northland10]

"Let's put a huge kettle drum of dubious value on a tank of even more dubious value and restrict the field of view and arc of fire" said nobody sane ever.

A metamorphosis with a kettle drum.


But seeing what you shoot at is not necessary if you're an asshole.

[John Thomas8]

[RTH10260]

[Suranis]

A summary of what's been happening recently.

[RTH10260]

[Luke]

This is terrific news. Another reason we can't let the GOP take us back to isolationism (and Russia-loving).

Luke Johnson @Orly_licious 1m
Tough break for Russia lovers: "Russia's navy pulled its last patrol boat from Crimea, Ukraine says, after getting pummelled for months". NATO is working, the alliance is strong, and the United States stays firmly as a force for good in the region.
https://businessinsider.com/russia-pull ... ine-2024-7

Quote Tristan Snell @TristanSnell 6h

BREAKING: Russia concedes defeat in Black Sea, withdraws remaining fleet in retreat from Crimea, over to the east end of the Sea in Abkhazia (part of Georgia that Russia invaded and illegally holds).

Ukraine has WON the naval war for the Black Sea.

Next stop: liberating Crimea

[Suranis]

Bad day for Russian Aircraft. TU-33M hit, SU-34 crashed, two helicopters shot down too. This is a decent video but the title is pure clickbait



In addition Russia has been moving Heavy equipment away from the Front lines.

https://vxtwitter.com/NOELreports/statu ... 0460036175

NOELREPORTS (@NOELreports)
Russian forces are massively moving equipment closer to the Kerch Bridge, according to Ukrainian partisan movement "Atesh." They are relocating surviving air defense systems, aviation, radars, and military facilities from the western part of Crimea towards the strategic crossing.

[RTH10260]

Bad day for Russian Aircraft. TU-33M hit, SU-34 crashed, two helicopters shot down too. This is a decent video but the title is pure clickbait

https://youtu.be/whOqNxY9b10

In addition Russia has been moving Heavy equipment away from the Front lines.

https://vxtwitter.com/NOELreports/statu ... 0460036175

NOELREPORTS (@NOELreports)
Russian forces are massively moving equipment closer to the Kerch Bridge, according to Ukrainian partisan movement "Atesh." They are relocating surviving air defense systems, aviation, radars, and military facilities from the western part of Crimea towards the strategic crossing.

The Ukranians have since a few months a new drone type with longrange capabilities in operation. They are attepting to destroy those planes that can carry glider style bombs and release them far behind the front line where Ukranian anti-aircraft defenses cannot reach them.

The Russians over the last months rapidly expanded the production of their glide bombs. These are not sophisticated, it's a crude metal rack with GPS guided servo motors to flaps for target finding. The rack fits around various variants of a conventional air bomb. The power of the bombs deployed has recently increased significantly.

[John Thomas8]

[pipistrelle]

Just ran across a headline saying former spy and now Putin parliamentarian Maria Butina says Ukraine is bombing Ukraine. H'okay.

[Dave from down under]

Well…

It is…

The bit’s illegally stolen by the War Ciminal Putin and his fascists.

[Suranis]

It seems that Ukrainian units have crossed the Russian border and are invading Kursk. Explosions were audible in Kurchatov.



These units were not announced until now, and a re part of an aid package.



Conversely, the Ukrainians had a chance to blow up more of Russia's best planes on the tarmac, and begged to do so. But the White House told them no. And now the Russians have gotten wise and dispersed their air assets.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidaxe/2 ... -too-late/

Forbes
Ukraine Had A Chance To Blow Up Russia’s Best Warplanes On The Tarmac. The White House Said No—And Now It’s Too Late.

Ukraine is still hitting Russian airfields, but only with less destructive drones.
David Axe
Forbes Staff
David Axe writes about ships, planes, tanks, drones and missiles.
Aug 5, 2024,05:05pm EDT
Updated Aug 5, 2024, 05:05pm EDT

For months, Ukrainian officials have been begging their foreign allies for permission to use the best donated weaponry—in particular, powerful ballistic missiles—to hit Russian warplanes that have been parking out in the open at airfields inside Russia within quick flying time of Ukrainian cities.

For months, those allies have demurred, citing the risk of escalation as Russia’s wider war on Ukraine grinds into its 29th month.

Clearly growing impatient, Ukrainian forces have stepped up their attacks on the most vulnerable Russian airfields—strictly deploying Ukrainian-made munitions. On Saturday, Ukrainian drones targeted Morozovsk air base in southern Russia 200 miles from the front line in eastern Ukraine.

According to the Ukrainian intelligence directorate, the drone raid destroyed a Russian air force Sukhoi Su-34 fighter-bomber, damaged two additional Su-34s and burned down an ammunition warehouse.

The directorate published satellite imagery of the base depicting what it described as “extensive areas of scorched earth” resulting from the ammo cooking off in the aftermath of the attack.

This isn’t the first attack on Morozovsk, but it is one of the most destructive. It’s a bittersweet victory for the Ukrainians, however. Similar raids are getting harder to pull off as the Russians redeploy their warplanes to less vulnerable bases.

It’s obvious what the Ukrainian intelligence directorate is trying to achieve. By targeting Morozovsk and other airfields near the Russia-Ukraine border, the directorate hopes to destroy the key enablers of Russia’s glide-bombing campaign: the warplanes that carry the bombs as well as the bombs themselves.

Since dropping its first crude glide bombs on Ukraine last year, the Russian air force has really embraced the satellite-guided munitions. Thanks to their pop-out wings, the hastily-built “KAB” glide bombs possess just enough range—25 miles or more, depending on the model—to allow Su-34 fighter-bombers to hit Ukrainian troops and civilians from beyond the range of the best Ukrainian air defenses.

Every day, the Russians drop as many as 100 KABs, some weighing more than three tons. “Unfortunately, in urban environments, their large and frequent use is highly effective,” Ukrainian analysis group Frontelligence Insight reported.

“Even though they are often imprecise, the sheer payload is enough to demolish or severely damage buildings, even if the KAB doesn’t hit the target directly,” Frontelligence Insight continued. “When buildings collapse, underground basements trap people inside, making rescue operations impossible, especially when the Russians conduct double and triple-tap attacks.”

As urban demolition weapons, the KABs have been a deciding factor in practically every recent Russian victory all along the 700-mile front line. “In the past, like in the battle for Bakhmut [last year], it sometimes took days for Russian artillery to damage buildings enough to force defenders to retreat,” Frontelligence Insight explained. “Now, entire buildings can collapse in seconds, rendering them useless for defensive purposes.”

It’s a top priority of the government in Kyiv to blunt the glide-bombing campaign by destroying the bombers, the bombs—or both.

There was a rare opportunity to deliver a major blow against the KAB infrastructure earlier this summer, when the Russian air force’s 47th Guards Bomber Aviation Regiment parked dozens of Su-34s—out of roughly 100 in service—in open at Voronezh Malshevo air base in southern Russia 100 miles from the border with Ukraine.

Voronezh Malshevo is a reasonably well-defended base, so the Ukrainians pleaded for permission to fire their best American-made Army Tactical Missile System rockets at the base. The ATACMs are almost impossible to intercept.

But the administration of U.S. Pres. Joe Biden said no. “Our policy has not changed,” Jake Sullivan, Biden’s national security advisor, told reporters last month. As before, Ukraine would only be allowed to fire ATACMS at targets in Russian-occupied Ukraine.

The Russians observed the heated diplomacy regarding ATACMS—and made a rare proactive decision to pull the Su-34s from Voronezh Malshevo and other border airfields.

“Between the second half of June and mid-July, Russian forces relocated a lion’s [share] of valuable military assets away from the border area with Ukraine,” Frontelligence Insight noted. The departure of Su-34s from Voronezh Malshevo was among “the most notable movements.”

Today many of the Su-34s are at bases hundreds of miles from the border. They’re not invulnerable to Ukrainian drones—the farthest-flying models range more than 1,000 miles.

But they are safe from most Ukrainian drones, as well as from the ATACMS, the most powerful of which range just 190 miles. If the White House ever grants permission for ATACMS raids on Russian bases, it might be too late. The most valuable targets may be too far away.

Obviously, a handful of Su-34s—as well as some stocks of KAB bombs—remain at border airfields such as Morozovsk: Ukraine just hit three of the planes plus their ammo.

But to end the glide-bombing campaign, Ukraine needs to destroy scores of Su-34s—not one or several. And smarter Russian deployments are making that harder to achieve.

[Volkonski]

Makes Putin look weak.

‘Furious battles are underway’: Kursk residents call on Putin for help after Ukrainian incursion.

https://www.cnn.com/2024/08/08/europe/r ... index.html

Russia claimed on Thursday to have halted a Ukrainian incursion into its territory, but later said that some battles are ongoing in the Kursk region. According to the Russian Ministry of Defense, units of the “North” group of its forces, together with the Russian Federal Security Service, the FSB, “continue to destroy Ukrainian armed forces formations in the Sudzhensky and Korenevsky districts of the Kursk region, which are directly adjacent to the Russian-Ukrainian border.” CNN cannot independently verify these claims.

Kursk residents, who live in the Sudzhansky District, recorded a video address to Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday asking for his help, saying he has been misinformed about the situation on the ground and the Russian Defense Ministry’s statements about things being under control are untrue.

The address was published on a local Telegram channel that is dedicated to covering the latest news out of the town of Sudzha in Kursk region, which has been under Ukrainian attack for several days.

“These lies enable the local residents to die. The Chief of the General staff recently told you that the situation is under control, but today huge furious battles are underway in the Sudzhansky and Korenevsky districts,” one of the residents said.

“Sudzha was attacked, turned into ruins in a matter of hours. Local administration wasn’t working,” another resident said.

The Russian Ministry of Health says 66 people, including nine children, were injured in Ukrainian shelling of the Kursk region since Tuesday. Medicine, blood and its components are available in medical organizations in the required volume, the ministry said.

[GlimDropper]

Update on the Kursk offensive:

[Suranis]

https://newsie.social/@Tendar/112943443474990375

Tendar
@Tendar@newsie.social

More and more footage, entirely from Russian drones, is proving that Ukrainian troops are visually confirmed quite deep in Russian territory. The largest extent I could find so far is east of the village of Sheptukhovka, almost 25 km from the Ukrainian border. I think that the Russian claims of AFU being up to 35 km inside Russia are relatively correct.

Mintel World (@mintelworld)
#BREAKING According to Russian sources, AFU opened second front in Russia's Kursk oblast, the settlement of Slobodka-Ivanovka in the west of the Kursk oblast came under the control of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

https://twitter.com/NOELreports/status/ ... 5943106800

NOELREPORTS (@NOELreports)
Multiple reports now coming in that a big attack on Korenevo is happening, involving armored units and lots of FPV strikes. From initial reports we read that Ukraine is trying to bypass Korenevo from the east, and is already succeeding in some areas.

[Suranis]

Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський
@ZelenskyyUa
Enerhodar. We have recorded from Nikopol that the Russian occupiers have started a fire on the territory of the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant.

Currently, radiation levels are within norm. However, as long as the Russian terrorists maintain control over the nuclear plant, the situation is not and cannot be normal.

Since the first day of its seizure, Russia has been using the Zaporizhzhia NPP only to blackmail Ukraine, all of Europe, and the world.

We are waiting for the world to react, waiting for the IAEA to react. Russia must be held accountable for this. Only Ukrainian control over the Zaporizhzhia NPP can guarantee a return to normalcy and complete safety.

It just seems to be a tire fire for now.

[Flatpoint High]

uhm... Russia do grok 'irony'? https://english.nv.ua/nation/russia-con ... 42101.html

Russia convenes UN Security Council members informal meeting to complain about the Ukrainian Armed Forces alleged attack on its Kursk Oblast, the Ukrainian media outlet Ukrinform reported on Aug. 11.

"Crimes committed by the Kyiv authorities" will be the topic of discussion there, the letter that the Russian Permanent Representative to the UN sent to the members of the Security Council, wrote.

The Commissioner for Human Rights in Russia, Tatyana Moskalkova, earlier sent an appeal to the UN High Commissioner with the demand to "condemn the actions of Ukraine" in connection with the events in Kursk Oblast.

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[RVInit]

[Volkonski]

Unbelievable hutzpah!

[Suranis]

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